Hope Of Memories
by Xris Robbins
Summary: An introspection. Minor slashiness.


Disclaimer: Not mine. I just decided to borrow them for a   
while. Really, I didn't even get them dirty!  
Summary: In character thoughts from the movie. Erik and   
Charles search for hope in the past they shared.  
Pairing: Xavier/Magneto  
Rating: PG-13 (slash)  
Warnings/Spoilers: As for warnings, there's some mild   
angst. As for spoilers... none, really. This builds on a   
scene from the movie, but nothing that you won't see after   
watching the first twenty minutes.  
  
Acknowledgements/Dedications: Alex, I love you, you're   
the bestest Beta in the whole world! (I'll get chewed for   
that one). This story doesn't really have a dedication, but it   
is the first of its fandom that I've written, so it's kind of   
special in that right. It's pathetically short but oh well. . .   
win some lose some. While writing this I should have been   
studying for my social final, but it wasn;t happening and I   
aced the test anyway. The moral of the story: write slash   
instead of studying and you'll get good marks. Wait a   
minute. . .  
  
_______  
  
The Hope of Memories  
By Christy Robbins  
_______  
  
  
"Erik!"  
  
He had been spotted.  
  
Of course he had been spotted. The idiocy was his for   
thinking it would be otherwise. Charles was, after all, one   
of the world's most powerful psychics. Moreover, the two   
of them had been too close for him NOT to have sensed   
Erik close by.  
  
Turning slightly, Erik regarded the crippled man that sat in   
the chair down the hall. How the sight pained him. He did   
remember a time when Charles had not seemed so weak, so   
old. That was before the war. Before the differences in   
ideologies had sent them to opposing sides of the same   
battlefield. He remembered what it was like to share the   
same dream with the man who he had loved. . . to share the   
same bed. He remembered the way that Charles tucked his   
own body into the curve of Erik's, the way the goose   
bumps rose on his skin when his lover did so. He   
remembered Charles' smell - like old musk and ivory. He   
remembered the reverence that had taken hold of his gaze   
whenever he beheld Charles' body.  
  
That had been before the School, before the War. Before   
Scott and Jean and the X-men. It had been back when it   
was only Erik and Charles, sharing what they thought was   
forever. It had been the moments that had lasted into   
eternity yet ended much too quickly.  
  
"Please give them a chance. Consider what we're trying to   
accomplish here."  
  
Accomplish? There could be no accomplishments. For   
centuries - millennia - mankind had feared what they did   
not know. History was rife with examples of petty human   
hatred and bigotry, the closest example to his heart being   
World War II and the Holocaust. He had been given a   
serial number and categorized because of the differences in   
his heritage. There were countless more examples: the   
burnings in Salem, Massachusetts, the Ku Klux Klan, the   
homophobic masses. . .   
  
Another subject so close to his heart.  
  
He shuddered.  
  
"You have to give the humans time. Don't give up on   
them, mankind has evolved."  
  
No, they had not. Mankind would never evolve from the   
prejudiced mob that they had begun as. It was as it always   
had been. Even disregarding the Holocaust, he would have   
sentenced them to the same thing. He remembered Charles   
and he making their way down the street of a crowded city   
street - Erik pushing Charles along - and being bumped   
into. He remembered what it was like to hear the words   
'damn faggots' come from the mouth of one who could   
never understand and how the pained expression had   
crossed Charles face. He remembered how he had wanted   
to hurt the man for causing that pain and how Charles was   
the only thing to come between Erik and his vengeance.  
  
Not this time.  
  
He felt a brush of presence through his head and winced a   
bit under the strain of the suddenly flashback. Holding   
Charles in his arms, nuzzling at the curve of his neck,   
worshipping his body as they made love.  
  
How dare he!  
  
"Are you trying to sneak around in my head Charles?   
What are you trying to find?" he demanded quietly. No, he   
would not allow himself to show weakness before this man.  
  
"Hope." Scowling, Erik turned on his heel and disappeared   
down the hall.  
  
~  
  
Hope. Hope and something more.  
  
What had Charles been looking for, really? A sign that the   
man he had loved - still loved - was still there, buried deep   
under the hate and anger that had welled up. A sign that,   
perhaps, things could be the way they used to be before   
Erik had let his hate devour him.  
  
Turning his chair, Xavier went to meet with Jean. After her   
impassioned speech, she would be seeking the normal   
answers that drove her onwards. Why did mankind seek to   
persecute what they could no accept? Why had they not   
yet truly evolved, as Charles suggested? Why couldn't   
they let go of their anger?  
  
Yes, why?  
  
If Charles knew all the answers - all the true, unabridged   
answers - he would be able to find a way to bring back   
Erik from the swelling hatred that had consumed him.   
Then they could work together instead of opposing each   
other. A sweet dream, one that was infinitely preferable to   
reality. Yet the truth remained: Erik had been destroyed   
because of his hatred and the man Charles loved was gone   
forever.  
  
*I still love him.* The thought was not his own and   
Charles started when it entered his head. The sound of   
Erik's mind in his was startlingly alien yet admittedly   
familiar. Looking out the near window, he spotted Erik   
standing on the pavement below, looking up at the building   
with an expression that echoed the sadness in Charles' own   
heart. Yet, as Erik turned and made his way down the   
street, Charles felt a stirring within him. Erik still loved   
him.  
  
Perhaps there was still some of Erik left yet.  
  
And then Charles found it.  
  
Hope.  



End file.
